Save Our Hospitals is a resident-led campaign group formed in July 2012. We are FIGHTING against the NHS plans to DEMOLISH Charing Cross Hospital and downgrading of our A&Es( Hammersmith, Charing Cross, Ealing and Central Middlesex Hospitals)

Two years of campaigning by the Save Our Hospitals group against changes to the hospital in Hammersmith culminated in just half an hour of the three hour meeting of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s board.

Dr Tracey Batten, CEO of the board, confirmed the changes under the Shaping a Healthier Future programme which also include the current building being replaced by a £150 million hospital once part of the site is sold off to pay for it.

New facilities will also be built at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington where the majority of emergency patients from Hammersmith Hospital and Central Middlesex are set to go after their A&Es close on September 10.

When the plans were released last Thursday (July 24) Imperial were adamant the A&E is not closing , but at the meeting today Dr Batten could not give details. She said: “The A&E will not be closing but will be in line with an emergency services appropriate for a pioneering local hospital. We need to confirm what this is with guidance from NHS England.”

Labour Hammersmith MP, Andy Slaughter, was initially barred from the public meeting by NHS security guards but was let in after 20 minutes. Speaking after the decision, he said: “We were here to protest on behalf of thousands of west Londoners who don’t want their A&Es to close and a major hospital to be demolished.

“Now more than half the Charing Cross site is set to be sold, the existing hospital demolished and the new building will provide less than a quarter of the current floor space. All consultant emergency services will close or go elsewhere.

“These are irresponsible and half-baked decisions when the population is going up and the NHS is under unprecedented strain after four years of Tory cuts.”

Protesters were angry at the changes and what they say is a lack of empathy from NHS bosses. Before the meeting, John Coles, who lives off Askew Road, said: “I’m filled with misgiving about today because I feel all the decisions have been made but it doesn’t mean it’s right.”

Charing Cross’s urgent care centre is set to increase from 12 hours to 24 hours.

Health chiefs have been accused of using “Orwellian” language in a £400,000 publicity campaign about the closure of two A&E departments in west London.

Leaflets and posters refer to “changes” to emergency services at in Acton and Central Middlesex Hospital in Park Royal, which are in fact being scrapped altogether on 10 September.

The new Labour leadership at Hammersmith & Fulham council said senior health officials had admitted that medical staff wanted to use the word “closure” but they had been overruled by their public relations advisers M&C Saatchi because research showed patients found the word “change” more “reassuring than closure”

But council leader Stephen Cowan said: “Using the word ‘change’ rather than ‘closed’ appears to be deliberately designed to distract the public from being upset or concerned about the closure of the A&Es, rather than informing them of what was happening and what was in the best interests for them and their loved ones if they ever need accident or emergency health care services.

Saying something will change instead of closing may be more re-assuring, but then there is that rather gigantic problem that it is not true”.

Orwellian hospital closure tactics

Health bosses have been accused of deploying ‘Orwellian’-tactics by misleading patients in a £400,000 publicity campaign which claims that A&E units are ‘changing’ when in fact they are closing.

Public relations specialist, M&C Saatchi, has been hired by NHS bosses in North West London to provide advice and support for the campaign which starts this week and runs over the school summer holidays giving residents just six weeks’ notice of A&E closures at Hammersmith Hospital and Central Middlesex on September 10. They will be replaced with a GP-led Urgent Care Centre treating minor injuries.

M&C Saatchi sent NHS bosses research to show that patients found the 'change' message more 'reassuring than closure'.

However, when questioned at last Tuesday’s Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council Health and Social Care Policy and Accountability Committee (PAC) health officials from the CCG, including chair Dr Tim Spicer and vice-chair Dr Susan McGoldrick, told the committee that clinicians would have preferred to have used the word ‘closure’ but took advice from M&C Saatchi whom they described as their ‘professionals in public relations’.

H&F Council Leader, Cllr Stephen Cowan, said; "Using the word 'change' rather than ‘closed’ appeared to be deliberately designed to distract the public from being upset or concerned about the closure of the A&Es rather than informing them of what was happening and what was in the best interests for them and their loved ones should they ever need accident or emergency health care services."

He added that "this is negligent as the obvious and likely confusion of this approach has a clear potential to cost lives".

The Health and Social Care PAC won assurances that the full brief given to M&C Saatchi would be sent to them, as would the detailed communications outcomes M&C Saatchi had been commissioned to deliver.

Cllr Cowan said: "Saying something will change instead of closing may be more reassuring, but then there is that rather gigantic problem that it is not true. This is a highly misleading campaign George Orwell's Ministry of Truth would have been proud of. It will add to what health officials admit is already a high level of confusion about the differences between urgent care clinics and A&Es."

That likely confusion was demonstrated during H&F’s Health and Social Care PAC meeting when Dr. Mark Spencer, the Medical Director for Shaping A Healthier Future responded to questions about the choices a person might have in deciding whether to go to a proper class 1 A&E or an Urgent Care Clinic if they thought they, or a loved one, might be suffering possible symptoms of a serious medical condition such as meningitis or an possible emergency such as chest pains. Dr. Spicer asserted that the "recommendation would always be to go to an accident & emergency department." However, Sarah Garrett, a Communications Consultant for H&F Clinical Commissioning Group underlined the difficulty in an individual making that choice when she later told the PAC meeting "People don’t understand the difference between an A&E and an urgent care centre".

Cllr Cowan said; "We are against the closure of this A&E but this is also all very insightful into how these people are making decisions about our NHS. Health officials and M&C Saatchi need to come clean and explain why they’ve taken this Orwellian approach. They claim it is to inform local residents but use deliberately misleading language which is against the better judgement of clinicians and in a campaign being run over the school summer holidays when many people will be away.

"Providing people with an understanding of the right place to go in an accident or emergency should be the highest priority with this £400,000 tax-payer-funded communications campaign. Having looked at the evidence and heard their explanations, that is clearly not their goal. This demonstrates another serious failure of judgement and one that they will be held accountable for as our campaign to save our hospitals carries on".

On Thursday, two days after H&F’s Health and Social Care PAC, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust published board papers which confirmed their proposals to demolish Charing Cross hospital and replace it with a GP-led health centre which would see:

However Cllr Cowan said: "What we are seeing nationally within the NHS is hugely confusing and misleading for residents. They believe that they can take away vast swathes of emergency facilities without people noticing.

"This council will not allow that to happen. We will expose what is going on at every stage and use all our influence and powers to block future plans to demolish Charing Cross Hospital and take away its emergency services."

As a retired nurse from the late 'fifties' I am bieng lied to by the 'powers that be' Imperial College for example, medical 'experts'etc.etc. ad nauseam regarding 'benefits' to patients.
Patients are the last people they are considering. Eack 'client' is considered to be one financial unit amongst thousands of us 'mugs'

They may fool some of the people some of the time but, believe me we are old and wise enough to know exactly what they are up to behind our backs

From VICTIM on 31/07/2014 at 13:39

Agree with GAJR and Roy Grainger. Mr Cowan - why aren't YOU launching a judicial review into this issue? It directly affects your residents and the future of this borough. The closures and demolition are scandalous, why are you not doing everything in your power to stop it? Wouldn't the launch of a judicial review would stop the action until there is an outcome?

From Philippa on 31/07/2014 at 13:20

Please everybody do read Nikolai's comment. Yes it's sad to hear about the PR angle on A&E (and it would be good to know the cost), but I'm yet to see a balanced presentation of the west London healthcare issues from either H&F party. I suspect this is the more misleading as its populist angle will win always more votes, but with the information available to us it's pretty hard to be sure.

From Nick on 30/07/2014 at 21:27

This council has been in place for just two months and will, I believe, do all possible to fight these proposals. The last council did absolutely nothing and still had the nerve to send out, about a year ago, a glossy leaflet stating that they had " saved Charing Cross " If pigs could fly bacon would go up.

From Les C on 30/07/2014 at 20:40

Sorry do I get it right that NHS is spending nearly half a million taxpayers money on an advertising campaign ? I think this is totally out of line and people who have authorised this spending have to be fired. I pay quite a lot of taxes as I am in the higher bracket - I do not mind it when it is spent for public good but this is clearly not the case here! This has to be stopped!

From Alex on 30/07/2014 at 20:26

I am also not in favour in closing the A&E. I am a Nurse & had a collapsed & suffered chest pain during my working hours in the Trust & the same thing you have to queue, no special treatment & have to wait too. Thanks God I survived , really the staff are all great but the work loads is too much and patients census is increasing, so if emergency crisis occur- where to send them ?

From MGLM on 30/07/2014 at 20:06

Cllr Cowan's influence over government is rather limited and central government is able to ride roughshod over his protestations. The NHS is accountable to the SoS for Health. Whilst not an apologist for any politician, all he can do is raise awareness and in so doing ensure the govt does not get an easy pass. As someone who has recently suffered a stroke and received excellent care from Charing Cross Hospital, I am against the closure of this priceless facility.

From Toks on 30/07/2014 at 18:46

The hospital closure campaign has been extremely misleading and the lack of public consultants is despicable. In any event, I don't believe that downsizing the NHS will be beneficial and I am totally against selling off the irreplaceable assets. Although there has been an alarming decline NHS services over the last ten years, more consideration should be given to correcting the internal problems e.g. doctors (and nurses) having too little time to do their work properly.

From Malcolm on 30/07/2014 at 15:40

Good to read some sense from Martin and Nikolai.

From Helen on 30/07/2014 at 15:29

I do not care how they present their services so long as they produce those services when I require them. Unfortunately they do not work for my convenience but their own. Has anybody test run their A& E provision to see if it is there and available

From Zabavnik on 30/07/2014 at 14:24

What I cannot understand is how those responsible for taking these decisions still manage to sleep peacefully at night...

From Paolo on 30/07/2014 at 14:19

As a resident of Hammersmith and a former patient of Charing Cross hospital I am totally against the closure of the A&E and the demolition of the majority of the hospital which I consider an irreplaceable local resource. My partner has been admitted twice for successful, emergency treatment for a stroke and I don't know what we would have done if we'd had to have gone further afield for an A&E department, or worse had to make a decision as to whether a minor injuries clinic would have been appropriate. Please think again! We need our hospital!

From Milly Burns on 30/07/2014 at 13:57

Thank goodness we've got Cllr Cowan as our Leader. If we are to win any concessions it will be due to him and his colleagues and all those "foot soldier" helpers. I am sorry I am no longer able to play an active part in saving our hospitals that mean so much to us all.

From june bennett on 30/07/2014 at 13:49

For a population the size of Leeds to be reduced to this level of cottage-hospital cover is scandalous. What are our taxes for?

From Guy Lloyd on 30/07/2014 at 13:47

The one question the health chiefs must be asked is how many deaths are they going to see as acceptable to back up the wholesale closure of our NHS services.
It's time to sack the chiefs to save the NHS...

From Steve on 30/07/2014 at 13:39

I am completely baffled why Imperial is to close A&Es. Accident and Emergency - the clue is in the name - and valuable time will be wasted getting urgent cases to emergency care.

From Sam Covington on 30/07/2014 at 13:11

The campaign announcing changes is clearly mendacious. This should prompt a complaint to the Ombudsman and other relevant authorities, immediately, accompanied by an application to the court for suspending Saachi meanwhile.

The plans described clearly fail to provide adequate A & E services to west London residents. The Council should actually quantify the risk and thus potential costs of closures - as the result is likely to be legal cases against the NHS (i.e. ultimately US)

From Vaughan on 30/07/2014 at 12:31

It would be helpful to know what is the difference between "an urgent care clinic" and an "A&E".

From Martin on 30/07/2014 at 12:21

It seems to me that closing any A&E unit would be an act of folly and stupidity beyond belief. The people that make these ''decisions'' seem not to live in the same world as us mere mortals. I urge Cllr Cowan to do whatever is necessary to change this illogical decision.

From ANH on 30/07/2014 at 12:20

Horrified - not simply by the Orwellian tactics but by the wanton destruction of a first-class, recently renovated hospital on which I, like everyone I know locally, rely for medical care.

The change in London could have happened ten years ago, but which politician would back it then?

Specialisation in heart and stroke care in London has already saved hundreds of lives. Did you oppose that?

Cancer care is next to be changes to just a few London hospitals - will you oppose that?

As long as the changeover is funded properly, you are just being popularist in opposing this change for blue-light trauma cases.

From Martin on 30/07/2014 at 12:08

Tip of the iceberg. And to think that under the spotlight of the Olympics, the World was given the NHS as an example of British achievement... What a farce. If there's a revolution, count me in.

From MissTG on 30/07/2014 at 12:01

Two details:
1) - "Health officials argue that closing A&Es and centralising services at fewer hospitals will improve patient care.� That if the various traffic Jams allow the patient to reach the destination.
2) - LBHF being one of the highest populated borough it is going to cause even more congestion for the "few left" emergency services which presently are struggling already.
M&C Saachi & NSH bosses are adding insults to injury (no pun intended). Shame on them.

From Happy-AOP on 30/07/2014 at 12:00

Why is nobody launching a Judicial Review? No public consultation, government lying through its teeth, again. Residents clearly don't want the changes. Democracy and all that? Or are we now under a totalitarianism regime? Feeling more and more like the latter.

From GAJR on 30/07/2014 at 11:50

This whole process of closing hospitals is being driven purely for financial and profitable reasons, the bottom line is let's make money, this is a wider issue inside of the NHS now they are getting ready for the privatisation of huge sectors of the NHS, the other managers and doctors who are driving this ridiculous policy through have no more than pounds signs in their eyes they will make hundreds of millions of pounds the stench of corruption whirls around this whole policy, as for the selling off of Charing Cross Hospital site everybody knew that once the A&E had gone the trusts would sell off the land to their friends to build billionaires luxury housing for their Chinese and Russian friends turning a little bit more of this Borough into a billionaires yuppie ghetto

From william chick on 30/07/2014 at 11:44

Misinformation is being piled upon misinformation! Do the ''powers that be'' actually know how long it takes to travel out of Fulham to a real A&E department, e.g. Chelsea & Westminster? It can sometimes take as long as an hour just to travel the length of Fulham Palace Road! The idea that closing A&E departments such as those at Charing Cross or Hammersmith Hospitals will somehow improve outcomes is absurd. And, as already pointed out, how are patients supposed to know if their particular complaint is a genuine emergency and therefore travel to the right location for treatment? I despair!

From SueJ on 30/07/2014 at 11:31

I am horrified by the weasel words used in a publically-funded so-called 'information' campaign. The local closures - sorry, changes - are ill-conceived. St Mary's is already in breach of its A&E targets and hard to reach by public transport - hardly a local solution for patients in West London. Perhaps the DoH is hoping we'll all die before we can access expert medical care - and I write as a cancer patient.

From DebT on 30/07/2014 at 11:26

As a Fulham resident since 1984, it will be a very sad day if Charing Cross Hospital is demolished. Paying Charles Saatchi's agency �400,000 to mislead consumers, against the wishes of clinicians, sounds like a shocking misuse of public funds.

From Julian on 30/07/2014 at 11:24

Having worked on change in the NHS for well over a decade, I think it would be great if, instead of these crude "save our hospital" type editorials, we could have a genuine cross-political-party, cross-community dialogue and consensus on changes to the NHS.

Modernising secondary care in London, and specifically looking at ideas around centralised hyper-acute services, and localising low-acuity services, was a process kicked off by the previous Government, and broadly approved by local administrations in London. The differences in actual policy on the NHS between the parties are paper-thin.

The days of the DGH that does everything are dead and gone - that's not a political view, it's economic practical reality. Supply-side reforms and efficiency are desperately needed to keep the NHS afloat.

So how's about instead of the confrontational nonsense above (both parties guilty in this!), we actually get together to discuss positive ideas about how we're going to change things, and front up to our constituents that, unfortunately, we can't all be winners when things change.

From Nikolai on 30/07/2014 at 11:17

Stephen Cowan PROMISED to BLOCK the changes at Charing Cross in the manifesto on which he was elected. So why doesn't he get on and do it instead of issuing rambling statements like this?

This Wednesday the decision will be approved by the Imperial Board when they meet at Hammersmith Hospital.

Join the protest outside the main entrance to Hammersmith Hospital in Du Cane Road, W12 0HS, from 9am this Wednesday the 30th of July – come along to have your say on our local NHS. If you can, stay for the Board meeting, which is held in public and will make the decisions. Ask for directions to the Oak Suite, W12 Conference Centre, Hammersmith Hospital.

These are the proposals the Board meeting will consider:

Hammersmith and Central Middlesex A&Es will close on 10 September. 22,000 Hammersmith patients a year will be told to attend St Mary’s Paddington despite fears this will ‘compromise performance’

Plans to demolish Charing Cross Hospital, sell 55% of site and reduce space by more than 75%

Inpatient beds at Charing Cross would reduce from 360 to just 24. Charing Cross would become a ‘local hospital’ providing GP and treatment services and day surgery

In February 2013 plans to sell the whole Charing Cross site save for a clinic on 3% of the land were met with outrage and the local NHS promised to go away and think again. Their original timetable – to report back by October last year – slipped month by month and Imperial took over the lead in developing plans. At the end of October Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed his wish to close Hammersmith A&E but said Charing Cross would ‘continue to offer an A&E service’. However the situation remained very unclear and the truth was held back in part to help the Conservatives in the local elections in May.

Now we have the final proposals and they are worse than we were recently led to believe. Charing Cross will close as a major hospital. It will be reduced to a primary care centre with some day surgery and treatment services. This is simply unacceptable to many west Londoners and we are going to keep fighting to save Charing Cross which has been a landmark London hospital for almost 200 years.

More than half the Charing Cross site will be sold, the existing hospital demolished and new building will provide less than a quarter of the current floor space. All consultant emergency services will close or go elsewhere. The present 360 inpatient beds will fall to just 24. The biggest betrayal is the loss of the A&E. Far from continuing ‘to offer an A&E service’ as Hunt promised, Imperial confirm that A&E will ‘move out’ of Charing Cross under their plans leaving ‘an emergency service appropriate for a local hospital’. This means an urgent care centre staffed by GPs and nurses.

The immediate crisis is the closure of the two A&Es at Hammersmith and Central Middlesex. Imperial admit that there is a risk that this will ‘compromise performance against the 4 hour waiting time standard’. A&Es are already at capacity and the thought that two will close immediately and another two – Charing Cross and Ealing – within the next few years is grotesque. Development is at an all-time high with the population expected to grow by 10% in the next ten years.

22,000 people attend Hammersmith A&E every year, mainly from White City, East Acton and North Kensington, some of the poorest areas of London with the worst health outcomes. Now they must either put up with a second-class service or make the difficult journey to St Mary’s Paddington where A&E waiting times already breach the four hour standard.

To suggest that services are ‘changing’ rather than closing is misleading and dangerous. This closure programme, the biggest in NHS history, has been subject to spin and concealment by the local NHS and the Government throughout. The A&E closures at Hammersmith and Central Middlesex Hospitals were announced the day after the local elections.

Despite a £300,000 PR spend, two months later no publicity has been undertaken. Now my constituents are being insulted by disingenuous nonsense about ‘changing’ and ‘transforming’ when the services are simply being shut down. The result could be that people will continue to go to Hammersmith Hospital after 10 September believing there is an A&E on site, with the possible tragic consequences we have seen at Chase Farm.

With a further £207m to save from their budget over the next five years on top of £127m saved in the past three these are cost-driven decisions and the blame for them lies with the Coalition Government and the Health Secretary.

The destruction of the NHS in Hammersmith & Fulham is the most serious challenge facing us. Please pass this on to your family, friends and neighbours and please let me know your views to I can represent them locally and in Parliament. The Save our Hospitals campaign will continue to fight - why not join them?

I believe we can make the Government- or if not this one the next - think again about the future of Charing Cross.

Have you ever felt so ill that you thought you were going to die? Have you ever been in so much pain that you couldn't sleep and desperately needed help? Have you ever broken your arm or leg and urgently needed assistance? Weren't you glad that Charing Cross Hospital was there with expertly trained doctors and nurses to help you?

Perhaps you are lucky and have never been unwell, but remember, it happens to us all at some time in our life.

Well on Wednesday the 30th of July the Imperial Trust are having a public meeting to decide the future of Charing Cross Hospital and it is very likely that the decision will be made to close it down. This will be catastrophic for this area that we live in!

Before the last General election, David Cameron promised that the National Health Service would be safe in his hands. Well the NHS is now in Mr. Cameron’s hands and he is proceeding with the biggest hospital closure program in the history of the NHS. And these closures will leave West London with a greatly reduce number of hospitals and A & E departments at a time when the present number can barely cope.

If you want to protect your future healthcare and the healthcare of your loved ones, then please come to this meeting, it is our last chance to exert any influence before they make their final decision.

“A draft strategy setting out how we want to develop our services to meet changing health needs will be presented to the Trust board on 30 July. The draft clinical strategy was posted on the Trust website on Thursday along with other board papers.

A foreword to the draft clinical strategy (see Notes to editors), signed by myself and the Trust’s most senior medical and nursing leads, makes clear that the status quo is not an option if the trust is to respond to changing health needs and continue to provide high quality care.

The draft clinical strategy focuses on transforming services through the implementation of new models of care to ensure our services achieve the best outcomes, are joined up, tailored to individual needs and provide an excellent patient experience. It also reflects the wider service change programme for north west London, Shaping a healthier future. This programme, led by local commissioners, was approved by the Secretary of State for Health in October 2013 following a full public consultation and a review by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel. Everything in our draft clinical strategy is in line with Shaping a healthier future.”

Clarity on specific comments is as follows:

We are developing an estates strategy to support the implementation of the clinical strategy. The current Charing Cross Hospital building is intended to be replaced with a £150 million development to be designed for future health needs. If approved by the Trust board on Wednesday, it will be at least one year before central approval and agreement on finances and a further period to complete design work and secure planning permissions. The Trust is publicly committed to major and ongoing engagement with local communities to work up the plans.

If the finances are approved centrally, there will be new, purpose-built facilities at Charing Cross and St Mary’s. The design will make better use of the estate and so will free up some land to be sold to help fund the redevelopment.

The draft clinical strategy is clear that there will be a continued 24/7 emergency service at Charing Cross Hospital, in line with the Secretary of State’s decision. The strategy states that “we are awaiting further guidance from NHS England on a national strategy to help guide the development of emergency services appropriate for a local hospital”.

The budget for inpatient hospital care has to reduce – and can be reduced –so we can provide more and better care out of hospital and focus more on keeping people healthier. Currently, in north west London, a fifth of over 75s end up back in hospital as emergencies within 28 days of discharge from hospital. This is bad for patients and bad for the NHS, but it can be addressed through more joined up care and more tailored care, closer to home.

A major public information campaign to raise awareness of the closure of Hammersmith A&E and the continued provision of a 24/7 urgent care service has been developed. The key messages for the campaign have been developed through public research and testing. Some aspects of the campaign have already begun, including a series of meetings with and letters to GPs and letters to parents via local schools. There is also a programme of meetings and communications with a wide range of community groups. The general public campaign via outdoor and print advertising, door-drop leaflets and media will begin on 28 July. It involves 285,000 leaflets and 312,000 pharmacy bags, putting ads on 30 bus routes, and over 100 poster and billboard sites.

The draft clinical strategy is available at http://www.imperial.nhs.uk/aboutus/ourorganisation/boardmeetings/index.htm

Foreword to draft clinical strategyThe NHS, like other healthcare systems across the developed world, is facing a massive challenge. While continuing to provide excellent urgent and emergency services, we have to transform the way that we care for the vastly increasing number of people with long-term conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease, and for our growing frail, elderly population.

Too many people with long-term or multiple conditions are simply not getting the right support. A fifth of over-75s end up back in hospital as emergencies within 28 days of discharge from hospital – this is bad for patients and bad for the NHS.

We believe we can respond to these challenges – but we have to have the right services, in the right place, in the right facilities. Our estate hasn’t had the development it has needed over the past decade or so – a large part of our building stock is now over 100 years old. We have to get it right this time.

This clinical strategy reflects the well-evidenced principles of what good future NHS care will look like. This means more local and integrated services, to improve access and help keep people healthy, and more concentrated specialist services where necessary, to increase quality and safety. We’ve already seen many more lives saved by centralising major trauma, stroke and heart attack centres across the capital, including at our hospitals.

We have had a huge input to this strategy from doctors, nurses and other clinicians and staff across the Trust. We recognise that to develop our strategy further and to implement it successfully, we need to do much more to explain our thinking and to listen and respond to the views and concerns of patients and local communities. And we have to make sure that we have community capacity in place before we reduce inpatient hospital services. But, as clinicians, we are certain that the biggest threat to the NHS – and to the great care we are here to provide – will come if we don’t change to meet new demands.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust comprises Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte’s & Chelsea, St Mary’s and Western Eye hospitals. With more than one million patient contacts each year, it is one of the largest acute Trusts in the country and, in partnership with Imperial College London, is the UK’s first Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC). It has an annual turnover of around £970 million. The Trust was created on 1 October 2007, by merging Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and St Mary's NHS Trust.

Imperial College Healthcare is one of eleven NIHR Biomedical Research Centres. This designation is given to the most outstanding NHS and university research partnerships in the country; leaders in scientific translation and early adopters of new insights in technologies, techniques and treatments for improving health. Imperial College Healthcare has some of the lowest mortality rates in the country according to the Dr Foster Guide – an annual, independent report published 2012.

About Imperial Academic Health Science Centre

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London formed a unique partnership and together they became the UK's first AHSC. On 9 March 2009, the Trust and College received official recognition as an AHSC from the UK government. An AHSC is a partnership between a healthcare provider and a university. The vision of the AHSC is to vastly improve the quality of life our patients and populations by taking scientific discoveries and translating them into new therapies and techniques and bringing them into an NHS setting in as quick a timeframe as possible.

About Imperial College London

Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 14,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.

Since its foundation in 1907, Imperial's contributions to society have included the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of research for the benefit of all continues today, with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to improve global health, tackle climate change, develop sustainable sources of energy and address security challenges